Introduction
What is it about sports that make people so emotionally charged? If it is “only a game”, why does fan behavior sometimes border onto fanaticism? These are some questions that have been asked time and time again while researching fan behavior. The reasons for such loyalist, crazy fan mentality can be attributed to several psychological, biological and social reasons. The thrill of competition and result based format of sporting events creates an atmosphere charged with emotion that binds sports fans together. Sports fans thrive and feed off energy in this sphere. The addictive nature of the emotional experience of watching a team play and sharing their wins and losses motivates fans to invest heavily in their teams leading to extremely emotional fan behavior.
Sports Fandom and Driving Factors
The choice of research being studied must be relevant to the subject under consideration (Patton,1987).The word fan first became popular in reference to enthusiasts of baseball. It originally comes from the Latin word fanaticus, meaning “insanely but divinely inspired”. Dunning, Murphy, and Williams (1986) noted that fandom “has come to form one of the principal media of collective identification in modern society and one of the principal sources of meaning in life for many people.” Understanding fandom is of essential importance as this study also aims to understand certain behavioral patterns of sports fans.
Researchers have long been interested in studying the characteristics, habits and overall health of sports fans. They've studied alcohol consumption, testosterone levels, and even cardiac arrest rates after a Super Bowl game. Daniel L.Wann, a psychology professor who is cited in plenty of artic...
... middle of paper ...
... together, sharing an emotional bond with people they may never see again. Sports can be a coping mechanism for many people as it simply helps them distress after a hard day in the office. Millions of sports fans across the world develop their schedules around their local team and work their routine primarily around being a fan knowingly or unknowingly. Sport often lures the fanatic out of the realm of reality into its own fairy tale like world, which is a primary finding in a majority of studies. It can also be observed that research can be conducted to include the emotional levels of attachment of sports fans when their teams are both in a successful and unsuccessful sphere, as there is a possibility the levels of emotional attachment differ in one fan itself in these two different scenarios, which may lead to a different perception of the term ‘sports fan’ itself.
the wild antics of the die hard fans. In my essay I will try and attempt to describe as
Lets look into the psychology of being a sports fan shall we? A loyal fan likes to represent his/her team in the best possible way. Loyal fans cannot stay away from the game. They will support their respe...
Sport fans, sometimes also called sport devotees, followers, or supporters, are persons who are enthusiastically devoted to a particular athlete, team or sport. They may show their enthusiasm by often attending sporting events or watch on television, being members of a fan club, follow sport news through newspapers, online websites, and creating fanzines. Their disposition is often such that they will experience a game or event by living through their favored players or teams. These behaviors manifest itself in different ways. To enable better understanding of these behavioral patterns, we have to classify these sports fans into groups based on their devotion to teams: fair-weather fans, bandwagon and the super-fans.
Obsession is something that gets thrown around a lot, to describe the way someone may feel about something. Obsession can be described by the fans of Odessa as it relates to its high school football team, so much so it is unhealthy. Sustaining the ambitions of not only themselves but the alumni and town of Odessa, Texas is a lot to ask from a young adult. There is a continuous pattern in Friday Night Lights that passion is not always a good thing. The town’s expectations of the team cause the school personnel and coaches to sacrifice the players’ overall wellbeing in return for a successful football team. Although the town of Odessa is unified and sustained by its love of Texas High School Football, Friday Night Lights provides insight into how damaging a fans obsession can be.
“Football’s Endgame: What would happen if America’s Pastime just...died” is the title that had heads turning when it made its way onto Sports Illustrated. Football is the United State’s favorite sport so an article like this one was sure to shock fans. The article was written to be set ten years from now when the game of football met its death. Giving the ongoing issues surrounding the game in 2016, the author Austin Murphy dated the article September 7,2036. In this article Murphy talks about the factors that led to the end of one of the U.S’s beloved sports. Factors like the AIG not protecting athletes against head injuries in the NFL, Pop Warner settling a death with the family of a former football player who committed suicide at the age of 25 from CTE caused by hits to the head, and the 10% rise in football concussions. A woman whose son had passed away from a motorcycle accident noticed changes in her boy. Playing football for almost a decade he was bound to get hurt, but it was after his death that doctors found he had CTE. CTE is a topic of discussion in this article. Sports Illustrated works to inform everyone about CTE and its effects on the mind. This disease targets the way a person thinks and changes their moods, “He had all these [football-related] problems with his knees and back, but his brain was
The importance of fans is vital because in addition to skill talent and hardwork, fans greatly affect how a team performs in their games. They affect the way a player plays because fans have a way of getting into their players heads and the opponent's head, even the referees are affected by the fans and we rarely notice the importance. In 2001 a Sports Ethics article “ The Ideal Fan” by Myles Dichter he explains the importance of fans and connection between fans
Every man sitting around our big screen T.V. has his own team to cheer for, which usually causes many spirited discussions during the four quarters of testosterone induced insanity. As the game plays on we all grow further and further engrossed in watching. As the women talk in the kitchen and the children run around, sometimes even right in front of the television, our stares never stray from the glowing giver of joy.
The roaring of the crowd on November 17 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC finally fell silent late in the fourth quarter after star linebacker Luke Kuechly was slow to get off the field after a huge hit to the head. American’s live to be entertained, and the football field is one of the main sources of enjoyment for many. Immediately after Kuechly’s hit, it was quiet in the stadium for the first time that day. The fans watched in fear, waiting to see if their star player could finish the game and bring out the win. However, they all became disappointed as Kuechly shed tears while being carted off the field, not because they were worried about the player and his head but because they feared about losing the game. Americans want excitement,
I asked multiple people what made them the football fans they are, and their answers ranged from, “It’s how I was raised” to “I’m American”. I never got a good, scientific explanation. No one could explain how they could go from being regular, soft spoken people outside of the stadium, to raging adrenaline fueled spectators shouting at players they don’t even know personally until they have no voice left. But at the same time, no one thought their actions were out of the ordinary or unwarranted.
Known as the world’s most popular sport, professional soccer has helped create and define different groups of people around the world for longer than a century. The hoopla surrounding teams, geographic areas fans dwell in, and political ideals associated with individual clubs have carved an identity for millions of supporters whose heart and soul becomes dedicated to their favorite players, stadiums, and coaches. Soccer teams and their fans can give us a window into how people can be divided and defined by their allegiances and ideals, and why those with similar views band together to create a familiar environment for themselves.
Sports is what has molded us into the people we are today. The world of sports is so unique, and people have different interest and fascinations. From being a child I can remember watching the Red Sox and Celtics with my father and becoming a die hard fan for those teams due to my family being serious fans. Not only did watching those games turn me into a good New England fan but it also gave me some good quality time with my father and brothers.
Everyone feels the need to belong. Some people find the answer to fulfill that need in sports. In the United States, the go-to sport is football. Following one’s hometown team or childhood NFL team through the regular season, playoffs, and hopefully, the Super Bowl has become a staple for today’s culture. Whether or not their favorite team makes it to the big Super Bowl game, they still find themselves cheering on one of the teams competing. T...
Finally, baseball fans are insanely loyal to the team of their choice. Should the home team's players lose eight in a row, their fans may begin to call them "bums." They may even suggest that the slumping cleanup hitter be sent to the minors or the manager fired. However, such reactions only hide their broken hearts. They still check the sports pages and tune in to get the score. Furthermore, this intense loyalty can make fans dangerous, for anyone who dares to say to a loyal fan that some other team has sharper fielding or a better attitude could risk permanent, physical harm.
The term “fandom” is thought to have first come into use in 1903, which is when Merriam-Webster’s dictionary first found evidence of the term being used, though its meaning has since evolved. The fandom of 2014 is very different to the fandom of 1903, and this is because of the fact that as the world evolved, so did the meaning of the word “fandom”. Social media is the main reason for the fact that fandom is used to refer to many different areas of interest. Sites such as “Tumblr” and “Twitter” have allowed fans to form a global community with those who share ...